Srila Prabhupada - Vedic Teachings

  A sea of Peace and Joy and Light Beyond my reach I know. In me the storm-tossed weeping night Finds room to rage and flow. I cry aloud, but all in vain; I helpless, the earth unkind! What soul of might can share my pain? Death-dart alone I find. A raft am I in the sea of Time; My oars are washed away. How can I reach the clime Of God’s eternal Day? But hark! I hear Thy golden Flute; Its notes bring the Summit down. Now safe am I, O Absolute! Gone death, gone night’s stark frown! (The poem was written by the master who was my master before Srila Prabhupada)

  Prabhupāda: And His being Absolute, His name is not different from Him. The name and the form and the quality of God, they are all Absolute. Therefore chanting His name means associating with God. So when one associates with God, gradually He becomes godly. And when he is fully purified, then he becomes associate of God. (German) Pater Emmanuel: (German) German devotee: (translating for Pater Emmanuel) But we can understand the name of God only in a negative way. Prabhupāda: No. God has unlimited potencies, and therefore He has got unlimited names. Pater Emmanuel: Yes, but we are limited. Prabhupāda: We are limited, but God is not limited. Unlimited. And because He is unlimited, therefore He has got unlimited names, not one or two but unlimited names. There is a Sanskrit book, Aṣṭottara-sahasra. There are 1,008 names of God. So 1,008 is also limited, but because we are limited, the God's names are given to us as far as we can understand. Otherwise He has got unlim...

Regarding your question about why we do not eat meat and yet we eat plant life, the answer is that we do everything as Krishna recommends. Everything we eat is first offered to Lord Krishna, and because Krishna does not eat meat, therefore we also do not eat meat. The fruits, grains, and vegetables which we offer to the Lord are not caused any suffering by our offering them to Krishna. Rather they are greatly benefited because to be offered for the pleasure of the Lord will grant for the living entity within the plant body certain liberation in the near future. Everything that we do in Krishna Consciousness is ultimately beneficial to all living creatures because we are working under the recommendations of the Lord Himself who is the well-wisher of all His part and parcel children. (From Srila Prabhupada's letter to: Ann Clifford — Los Angeles 2 August, 1969)          

  Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Sometimes people ask, Prabhupāda, that if one falls down into lower species of life like plants or animals, how then do they come again to the human form of life? Prabhupāda: Yes. That is nature's way. Give them again chance to develop. From trees they become flies. That is the beginning of movement. Then from flies to birds, birds to beast, and beast to animal, er, human being. This is great chastisement. You cannot move even. Suffer torrents of rain, cyclone, scorching heat, pinching cold. Stand up for hundreds and thousands of years. Then, when the punishment is finished, then he becomes moving. If there is scorching heat he can move to some shelter. But he cannot move. They do not study all this science, why there are so many varieties of life, of different grades. Wherefrom they are coming? Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The living entity, then, in the tree is actually conscious of its condition of life. Prabhupāda: Eh? Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The living entity inside the tree i...

Gargamuni: Why is this human form of life, why is this human life in such a diseased condition with war, pestilence, and famine? Prabhupāda:   These are miserable conditions inflicted by material nature just to remind the conditioned soul that this conditioned life in the material nature is not for you. There is another place, where you can live very peacefully. Just like in the prison life there is always infliction of miseries. If in the prison life one is comfortably situated, then he'll never go out, he'll try to live there. So these material inflictions of miseries reminds us that this place is not suitable for us. It is not our place. Our place is back to Godhead, back to home. Therefore these are the reminders that you must leave this place. (From Radio Interview -- March 12, 1968, San Francisco)

  Prabhupāda: Universal means all. You have to love everyone. Guest: If I didn't love the cow as equally with a child, then it is a personal love, because I'm defining qualifications. Prabhupāda: But how can you avoid this personal? Guest: Because to love the child only, I have to exclude other things, meaning the cow. Prabhupāda : But personal . . . child is the person. How can you avoid person? Guest: How can what? Prabhupāda: How can you avoid person? Guest: I don't understand. Prabhupāda: When you love, how can you avoid a person? What do you mean by love? Whenever you love universally . . . in the universe there are so many men, animals, and plants and beasts and birds, and so many things. So we have to love everyone. That is universal. You cannot discriminate, "Oh, this is not universal; this is universal." Universal means all-including. So how you can avoid this person or imperson? You have to love everyone. That is universal. Gues...

  A person may have a bona fide spiritual master and may be attached to a spiritual organization, but still, if he is not intelligent enough to make progress, then Kṛṣṇa from within gives him instructions so that he may ultimately come to Him without difficulty. The qualification is that a person always engage himself in Kṛṣṇa consciousness and with love and devotion render all kinds of services. He should perform some sort of work for Kṛṣṇa, and that work should be with love. If a devotee is intelligent enough, he will make progress on the path of self-realization. If one is sincere and devoted to the activities of devotional service, the Lord gives him a chance to make progress and ultimately attain to Him.  (From BG 10.10, Purport)    

  „ Śrīla Prabhupada: …. We should be very much cautious: “For my sinful actions my spiritual master will suffer, so I’ll not commit even a pinch of sinful activities.” That is the duty of the disciple. After initiation, all sinful reaction is finished. Now if he again commits sinful activities, his spiritual master has to suffer. A disciple should be sympathetic and consider this. “For my sinful activities, my spiritual master will suffer.” If the spiritual master is attacked by some disease, it is due to the sinful activities of others. “Don’t make many disciples.” But we do it because we are preaching. Never mind—let us suffer—still we shall accept them. Therefore your question was—when I suffer is it due to my past misdeeds? Was it not? That is my misdeed—that I accepted some disciples who are nonsense. That is my misdeed. Bob: This happens on occasions? Śrīla Prabhupāda: Yes. This is sure to happen because we are accepting so many men. It is the duty of the disciples to...

  „For logicians who want to accept only that which is proven through logic and argument, it is a fact that without logic and reason there can be no question of accepting the Absolute Truth. Unfortunately, when such logicians take to this path without the mercy of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, they remain on the platform of logic and argument and do not advance in spiritual life. However, if one is intelligent enough to apply his arguments and logic to the subtle understanding of the fundamental spiritual substance, he will be able to know that a poor fund of knowledge established on the basis of material logic cannot help one understand the Absolute Truth, which is beyond the reach of imperfect senses. The Mahābhārata therefore says, acintyāḥ khalu ye bhāvā na tāṁs tarkeṇa yojayet. (Mahābhārata, Bhīṣma-parva 5.22) How can that which is beyond the imagination or sensory speculation of mundane creatures be approached simply by logic? Logic and argument are very poor in spiritual strength...